Administering fluids containing medicine or nutrition to a patient is generally well known in the art. Typically, fluid is delivered to the patient by an administration feeding set loaded to a flow control apparatus, such as a pump, which delivers fluid to a patient.
A flow control apparatus of the prior art may also be capable of monitoring and detecting fluid flow conditions that can occur within the loaded feeding set during operation of the flow control apparatus. For example, prior art flow monitoring systems may include an ultrasonic sensor capable of detecting when fluid is not present in tube of the feeding set. In this example, the ultrasonic sensor transmits an ultrasonic signal through the tube and detects the ultrasonic signal after passing through the tube. The transmitted signal is analyzed, such as by a processor of the flow monitoring system, to determine the presence or absence of fluid within the tube and/or the flow condition of the fluid within the tube. If, for example, the flow monitoring system determines that there is no fluid present in the tube, the flow monitoring system may activate an alarm and/or stop operation of the flow control apparatus to ensure that air is not delivered to the patient.
It is possible that the flow monitoring system may malfunction, whereby the flow monitoring system fails to detect when there is no fluid in the feeding set. For example, the sensor (e.g., the ultrasonic sensor) may malfunction, whereby the sensor detects an ultrasonic signal that is indicative of the presence of fluid within the tube, for example, when in fact no fluid is present in the tube. In such a case, the flow monitoring system would make an incorrect determination that fluid is present in the tube and the flow control apparatus would continue to deliver air to the patient.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the drawings.